Thursday, October 19, 2006

Home Sick Soup #1

I know, you can't always be a spectacular vegan, packing a fantastic vegan lunch to go. Some times even a vegan gets to feelin' poorly. Then, it's nice to stay home and comfort yourself with a nice big bowl of hot soup.

Resplendent with Indian spices, cilantro, and fresh ginger, this soup sings in your mouth, warming weary bones and soothing sore throats. Best of all, it takes a mere 10 minutes to make, but tastes like it's been simmering on the stove all day.

Tomato rasam is one of our favorite sick day comfort foods. It's like soup for the soul.

christianne, so far as my understanding goes there is no such thing as "curry" in authentic Indian cooking - the term was invented by the Brits, I believe, to describe pretty much anything in a sauce. Rasam is a tamarind soup ^.^

>>I usually leave it out, but do you recommend anything in it's place?

You could add some fresh parsley for color, and maybe a shot of lemon juice or zest for a bit of that tangy, clean taste. But I think it would still be fantastic even if you just left the cilantro out.

Both curry powder and rasam powder are spice blends. You can purchase them or toast and grind your own spices. There are a lot of variations of both, and the flavors range from mild to spicy (we used a mild curry powder for our soup).

Rasam is a Sanskrit word that literally translates as "broth". It is usually a thin soup containing tamarind, but sometimes the tamarind is replaced with tomatoes, as it is in this recipe.

Just to confuse matters, there is a curry plant (kari plant) with sweet aromatic leaves that are used in Indian cooking, but curry powders often don't contain any curry leaves at all! Curry powders are usually a mixture of turmeric, red pepper, coriander, cumin, and other spices.